Off-Topic

[megsez]

Just curios what other weird,normal or nerdy stuff people are in to keeping???

I for one love to keep snakes but my wife wont let them near the house. The other pretty self admitted nerdy thing I like to keep are ant farms not that I have had one for a while but just caught a Queen ant that has just laid her first batch of eggs. Also got to make my first formicarium.

Any one out there like keeping scorpions ect anything else not considered normal?

 

[Agent M]

I'm fascinated by a lot of 'out of the norm' animals.

I kept a female Black Rock Scorpion for 5 years in an airtight terrarium. Can't say she ever did anything interesting but I had a black light over it at night coz I thought it was cool how they glow bright green. Best thing she was good for was if I found a cockroach or cricket I could just throw it in her tank and know it wasn't outside making babies. It grosses me out squishing them so knowing they had been put to good use was better in my mind :) As for maintenance - no cleaning pretty much ever & times between feeds should be no more than 3 months.

 

[Agent M]

Btw I think the ant farm thing is very cool and not nerdy at all! I wouldn't know what a Queen ant looks like or where to start.

Bee keeping is something I would like to try my hand at - but I don't think that will ever happen unless by some chance I live somewhere there is open spaces

 

[megsez]

Cool I have wanted a scorpion but I have never gotten around to it. A pet shop near my old work was selling theme and bird eating spiders as well that were cool. Did you ever get strung?

You could have a native Bee hive nest they are small and do not sting. Ants are also easy to keep and easy to find a Queen. It is time for the Nuptial flights of the queen ants and drones. You would be surprised I found the one above crawling on my arm while I was on the computer. All you need is a test tube to keep them in until the colony has grown.

 

[Agent M]

The species I had was extremely docile (Urodacus manicatus). You could handle her fine, but I don't like the feeling on my hand! You can put a piece of paper between them and your palm too but it observation only for me :p

Behaviour very similar to this:

This guy is good to contact if you ever want to buy one on mail order: http://www.thedailylink.com/thespiralburrow/

So what do you feed the ants?

 

[megsez]

Thats cool don't think the wife would like one in the house :worship How long do they live???

The queen dose not eat at this stage she lives off the fat from where her wing muscle's were. She has some water incase she wants it and to keep the test tube humid. When the first workers apeer I will just put a sugar and water mix and that is enough to sustain theme. You can feed theme flies ect if you want depending on what species you keep

 

[Agent M]

I've seen mixed lifespan info online so don't know, but it takes 2 years for the species I kept to mature, so mine was at least 7 when she died. I didn't know arachnids could live so long till I had my scorpion.

When I first moved in to my new place, there were some Black House spiders indoors. They creep me out quite a bit! I got rid of them but there was one big female I couldn't get because it was in a crack in the window sill. I kept meaning to spray it with bug spray but I think that stuff is so cruel & every time I went to do it (as in literally got it and aimed it into the hole) I couldn't pull the trigger, so I thought I'd wait for an opportunity to catch her. She's never come out in the open that I've noticed so she's still there nearly 4 years later, no clue what she eats because I vacuum up any webs she tries to make - I think that would horrify a lot of people!

 

[megsez]

Ye not a big fan of most spiders and also about spraying. But sins I have to little kids anything that may bite dose not last long the house.

 

[Agent M]

Can understand that (with the kids) - not sure about you guys in Qld but the only things we get here (Vic metro) inside the house that are of real concern are whitetail spiders. I always kill them.